Discharging patients from hospital effectively

Recent reports and surveys about the content and production of patient discharge summaries emphasise a concern about patient safety. The lack of vital clinical information about the individual and an inconsistent mode of delivery to GPs can lead to a discontinuity in patient care and certainly doesn’t demonstrate the vision of a ‘joined-up’ or seamless health service.

The Evidence
The NHS Alliance reports that, 70% of GPs reported that they experienced late discharge summaries ‘very often’ or ‘fairly often’. And the problem is not isolated to practice in the UK. In a poll managed by MedScape in the United States, 7% of hospital physicians noted that they never contacted the patient’s primary care physician and 34% only sometimes or rarely.

Julian Winn at WCI Consulting has 27 years experience in the public and private healthcare sectors and leads on the implementation of Lean practice and processes within healthcare. The white paper that explains the discharge process and the effect this has on the continuity of care in the NHS is downloadable here:

DischargingpatientsfromhospitaleffectivelyWhitePaper.pdf

For further information on Discharge Summary solutions contact:
email: info@wcihealthcare.com

or Tel: +44 (0) 8700 851 660